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Ala Code of Ethics

In today’s world, individuals can make a single decision that can have a positive or negative effect on their family, coworkers, friends, or on the entire world. However, the life we lead can reflect our personal character. Therefore, personal ethics are different for each one of us. However, when we work in a professional career, we have our own work character to reflect on. What is professional ethics? “Professional ethics concerns the moral issues that arise because of the specialist knowledge that professionals attain, and how the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public” (Chadwick 1998). Today, Librarianship is a profession that has a code of professional ethics to help us to behave a certain way or to follow specific way and to follow code of conducts. For example, “as librarians, we library specialists are called upon to make decisions every day. Those decisions chart the course for that particular day and the future, for ourselves and for those we work with. Making the right decisions makes our corner of the world a better place” (Baxter 2008, 27). Therefore, as we recognize how important it is to have a code of ethics, the library associations have a long history of creation and development of ethics for our profession. American Library Association (ALA) Code of Ethics History

American Library Association (ALA) first discussed code of ethics between 1903 and 1909. Mary Wright Plummer and Charles Knowles Bolton contributed most to the early Code of Ethics. During that time, Mary Wright Plummer was a director of the Pratt Institute Library School and Charles Knowles Bolton was a librarian of the Boston Athenaeum. The Suggested Code of Ethics was released to ALA members in 1930. Its introduction stated: “The library as an institution exists for the benefits of a give constituency. This may be the nation, a state, a county, a municipality, a school or college, a special field of research…, or some more limited group. It may not cover every case that may arise, we believe that if applied intelligently they would make for harmony in staff relations and for general good of the services” (Strugeon, 2007, 56). The Code of Ethics was formally adopted in 1939. During that time, American Library Association adopted Library Bill of Rights in 1948 and The Freedom to Read statement in 1953. Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read are important documents that help form ethical foundation in libraries. Since then, there was a significant change in the economic, social, and political that causes ALA to have a draft code in 1975 and again in 1979. In 1981, the committee began working on revision of the Code of Ethics. An example of this is “this latest revision of the Code of Ethics reflects changes in the nature of the profession and in its social and institutional environment” (ALA). There were six articles included in this version, which is similar to the version ALA has today. In 1991, the committee of ethics began working on the revision by soliciting comments and opinions from several librarian profession members from annual meetings and online surveys. The surprising difference between the 1995 Code of Ethics and others described as, “previous codes were in the impersonal third person: “librarians should” in the 1939 code and “librarians must” in the 1981 code” (ALA). In this code, it also states that librarians should distinguish between their personal and professional ethics. Therefore, personal and professional ethics are incompatible that causes many problems affecting information services. However, “in 2000, the committee began to work on the first explanatory statement of the Code of Ethics, “Questions and Answers on Librarian Speech in the Workplace” (ALA). Nevertheless, the Committee had been referred by the Council on an amendment to the Library Bill of Rights about the free speech rights, which would be a beneficial to librarians. An example...

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The organization’s code of ethics serves as a guide to its employees when making difficult decisions. Ethics helps professionals with their actions and practices that are directed to improve the welfare of people in an ethical way (Fremgen, 2009). An organization’s culture and mission statement also help its employees make ethical decisions. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) organization is the national public health organization that is committed to protect the health and safety of our nation. CDC’s mission statement focuses on to protect the health and safety of our communities through prevention strategies and control of disease. The mission statement motivates the employees to do their best to prevent diseases and infection. The code of ethics provides guidance to ensure that CDC employees avoid situations that could violate ethics law (CDC, 2013). The organization’s mission statement and culture reflect its ethical values.
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American Psychological Association Ethical Code.
http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx#
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Honesty, Compassionate, Loyalty, Opinions on Professional Rights and Responsibilities, Confidentiality of patient and proprietary information, and
I chose honesty as part of my code of ethics because it is very important to make sure that you instill trust and it’s the right thing to do. Compassionate is part of the code of ethics because it is something that comes easy to me and will make the patients feel more at ease. Loyalty to the patient, myself and the hospital. Opinions on Professional Rights and Responsibilities The Ama website has many subcategories for this topic I think it is very important for all medical staff to have this principle. Confidentiality of patient and proprietary information the information of the patient and all medical staff needs to be kept confidential. Responsibility also has Importance as patients need to feel that the medical staff is responsible with the care they are receiving. I believe this is a code of ethics I can use in the future with my career in the medical field.
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Creating an Effective Electronic
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Companies increasingly distribute their codes of conduct to their stakeholders online to make
the document more accessible and, perhaps, to overcome the traditional complexities associated with print codes. Additionally, the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002 requires publicly traded
companies to make their codes available to the public. This article will examine electronic
versions of code documents (e-codes) as useful tools in the larger context of organizational
ethics programs. In addition, the challenges of implementing e-codes will be analyzed and
recommendations made to enhance the effectiveness of a code of conduct distributed via the
Internet.
While the main examples used in this article will refer to corporate e-codes, the recommendations apply equally to such non-corporate entities as government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The fact that NGOs are not used as illustrations merely reflects
the lack of codes of conduct in general, and e-codes in particular, in these organizations.
(continued on page 2)
Implementing an Organizational
Code of Ethics
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ETHICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS
Introduction.............................................................................................04
Doing Ethics Technique..........................................................................05
ACS code of Ethics.................................................................................06
Ethical Theories......................................................................................07
Conclusion..............................................................................................08
References..............................................................................................08
INTRODUCTION
“Ethics are the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people (by Josh Brandt)”. Many organizations have least of five good reasons for promoting a work environment in which employees are encouraged to act ethically when making business decisions:
Gaining the good will of the community.
Creating an organization that operates consistently.
Fostering good business practices.
Protecting the organization and its employees from legal action.
Avoiding unfavorable publicity.
(George W Reynolds, Ethics in Information...

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Summary of the 1847 AMA Code of Ethics
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...Code of Ethics
“The American Cancer Society (ACS), together with millions of supporters, saves lives and creates a world with less cancer and more birthdays by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back” (ACS, 2012). The American Cancer Society’s headquarters are in Atlanta, GA and has 12 chartered divisions, more than 900 local offices nationwide, and a presence in more than 5,100 communities (ACS, 2012).
Code of ethics is defined as “A written set of guidelines issued by an organization to its workers and management to help them conduct their actions in accordance with its primary values and ethical standards” (Business Dictionary, 2012). A goal is defined as “An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe” (Business Dictionary, 2012).
What are the goals of the organization?
The American Cancer Society’s main goals are to eliminate cancer by prevention, saving lives, and diminishment of suffering through education, research, advocacy, and service.Their mission statement, “The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service” (ACS, 2012). The international mission...